Sound Women – update

Sound Women, the new network of women working in UK audio, now have a website, a LinkedIn group and a Facebook page.

They have also published the 200 list of women working in the audio and radio industry. Congratulations on a good start for a fiendishly difficult task (they acknowledge that it’s not yet finished).

Everyone is sure to have examples of omissions – so far, there seems to be just a handful from the community radio sector. This could be for a variety of reasons – such as a relatively small base to draw from, a general lack of awareness of Sound Women or the list, an unwillingness amongst community radio women to put themselves forward (hope not) – and even (again, hopefully not) a view among the selectors that community radio is ‘not really part of the industry’.

One woman who has achieved a great deal in community radio is Jennifer Ogole, Founder & CEO of BANG Edutainment and BANG 103.6FM in Harlesden, West London.

More suggestions anyone?

Sound Women – new group for women in radio

Sound Women is a new group for women working in radio, launched in June this year. It’s the brain-child of former BBC Executive Producer, Maria Williams, who posted about the need for such a group on her blog the day after the 2011 Sony Awards.

The first aim of the group is to create a network of 300 inspirational women who can be the visible face of women in radio/audio – appearing on panels, being judges for awards such as the Sonys etc. An excellent idea – count me in. I’d recommend that all woman in radio and audio put themselves forward, too.

Are all women welcome? I hope so. I’m a bit uneasy with Maria’s (probably light-hearted) quip in her first post: she writes that the new organisation will not be one where “tired women sit about grumbling about childcare and chauvinism” – but a “really dynamic one, which motivates and inspires women to go for that big job, take risks creatively, push to be given opportunities, and to take charge of their own careers and the industry”. Is the distinction so clear-cut? You can be going for the big jobs and being tired and worried about childcare all at the same time. If, as the Skillset research (pdf) shows, there are fewer women than men in the radio industry over the age of 35, then tiredness, childcare and chauvinism are probably high among the factors contributing to the inbalance. But let’s not go into that now.

I send my best wishes to Sound Women and hope that it inspires women at all levels and in all radio/audio sectors to sign up and join in.

Links:
- Sound Women
- Skillset Research
- Training and career advice links on the Women’s Radio Group website

16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence

Did you know that
~ Thursday 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
~ Friday 10th December is International Human Rights Day
~ Between those two dates, 16 days of activism are taking place around the world?

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign which originated in 1991 from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute and which is sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CGWL) at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. Participants chose the dates, November 25 (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and December 10 (International Human Rights Day) in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation.

In this its 20th year the theme for the campaign is Structures of Violence: Defining the Intersections of Militarism and Violence Against Women.

Media links
I first heard about the campaign through the Madrid-based women’s network Nosotras en el Mundo (Women in the World), who broadcast on Radio Vallekas and who were one of the partners in the imMEDIAte radio training project for women.

Around the world, community media organisations take part in the campaign. This year, UK radio groups and stations marking the 16 Days campaign include:
~ 96.2 The Revolution Radio in Oldham
~ South Leeds Community Radio
Let us know what you are doing and we will add it here.

On Thursday 25th November there is a webcast of the official UN Observance for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

You can also follow the campaign on Facebook.

Agnes Pareyio, ending violence against women

Agnes Pareyio is a Maasai activist from Kenya who works to change attitudes towards female genital mutilation of women. She is director of the Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative (TNI), a Community Based Organization in Narok District, Kenya. In 2005 she was honoured by the UN in Kenya for her work.

In April she was in London, visiting the NGO CODA International. I met her at Camden Community Radio, where she came to do an interview.

Click here for more details and to listen [Refugee Week Radio/Camden Community Radio].
Click here for a video report on her and her work. (Yes magazine)

Click here for photos (Gogo Mama, chapter 7, photos Sally Sara)

Documenting migration event at Gasworks

On Saturday 5th December, I attended an event ‘Documenting Migration’, part of the ongoing exhibition ‘Do You Remember Olive Morris?’ at Gasworks contemporary art organisation in South London. Olive Morris was a Brixton-based activist who died young from cancer.

As part of the event there was a ‘reverse’ migration experience for delegates: people from the UK and the EU were given a migration interview before they could come in, whilst those from elsewhere in the world were waved through.

One of the speakers was Marula Di Como, from the Berlin-based collective migrantas. Because migrant women and their experiences often remain invisible to the majority of society, migrantas aims to make visible the thoughts and feelings of those who have left their own country and now live in a new one. The collective, most of whom themselves migrated to Germany, work with migrant women to create powerful art forms which are then used in public spaces to raise awareness of migrant issues.

Also at the event was Eva McKend, from The Pod @ KCL – King’s College Radio and Podcasting Society. Together we recorded material for Radio 1812, a global audio project for International Migrants Day on 18th December. You can download or listen to Eva’s report as a podcast here.